HRS warns: SAR Queen is too heavy for high-altitude trips in the mountains

The Central Rescue Service (HRS) fears that the new SAR Queen helicopters will struggle to operate at altitude. They also caution against using a rescue helicopter of some sort.

50-year-old Sea King helicopters are being phased out of the Norwegian Armed Forces. New AW 101 helicopters are coming – or SAR Queen.

But a letter from director John Halvorson asked the law ministry to slow down the introduction of the helicopter variant now. Main recovery centerwrite down NRK.

The new SAR Queen helicopters first entered service three years ago and, according to the Norwegian Armed Forces’ website, “should provide increased protection for people in remote areas along the coast and across the country.”

– Effective without a helicopter

But the central rescue center fears that Rani will be too much to operate in high mountain areas where the air is thin.

The Sea King weighs about six tonnes, while the SAR Queen weighs ten tonnes – without equipment and crew.

The Major Rescue Center believes that civilian operators should continue to be allowed to operate other types of helicopters for reasons of emergency preparedness.

– The danger arises if you have a technical problem, which means all helicopters must be grounded until you figure out what the problem is, Halvorson writes.

– Halvorsen says that if you only had AW 101 in all of Norway, we would be without a rescue helicopter service.

The Major Rescue Center believes that civilian operators should continue to be allowed to operate other types of helicopters for reasons of emergency preparedness.

The Norwegian Defense Forces will also take over rescue readiness in Floro and Tromsø.

More complications

This is not the first time SAR Queen helicopters have caused trouble. Because they are so heavy, they can only land in the country’s hospitals, if anything, in small numbers NRK Wrote about earlier.

The cost of the 16 new helicopters is NOK 14 billion.

Then-Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) said at the time that the most important thing was to get “more powerful helicopters”, while admitting there were problems landing in hospitals.